Life Is Getting Better, Australian Beer Dept.

Americans know that Foster's is "Australian for beer." That's actually not true -- Foster's is a marginal player in the Aussie domestic market, although the Foster's-owned VB brand is very popular. But what I think of as Foster's-like beer -- feeble lagers, "refreshing" but why not just have water -- has typified the Australian domestic beer style. As it has in most other places on this side of the Pacific.

Until now! A craft brew explosion, in the good sense, is underway in Australia, promising to correct one of the few sub-standard aspects of the Aussie lifestyle: bad beer. I'll have more to say about this shortly, but for now, here is the view this afternoon from the place I'm staying in Sydney. Each of those 11 bottles is a local craft brew, including four from the influential James Squire range of beers and one from the phenomenal Lord Nelson Brewery, where I have been dozens of times over the years and where my wife and I tried pints' worth of various brews last night. The bottled version of Lord Nelson's "Three Sheets" ale, perhaps not as good as straight from the brewpub but still very good, is second-from-right in the picture below.

Eleven varieties was all I wanted to carry from the local BWS store, not all that they had in stock. That is a glamo[u]r shot above, so I could include the establishing detail of the Sydney Harbo[u]r Bridge in the background of a view from Milsons Point / Kirribilli. Below is a more workmanlike straight-on shot showing the labels, out the other window and with the beers in different order from above. This time with Lavender Bay in the background. Further analysis soon.

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James Fallows is a staff writer for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the 2018 book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which was a national best seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.